By ED BARK@unclebarkycom on TwitterWhen it comes to nets, it’s still no contest between the NBA and NHL -- although both of their biggest showcases remain on downward trends compared to last year.

Thursday’s Game 5 of the Stanley Cup playoffs on NBC, with the St. Louis Blues winning 2-1 over the Boston Bruins, drew just 63,264 D-FW viewers and 27,173 in the advertiser-prized 18-to-49 age range. Last year’s Game 5, in which the Washington Capitals clinched against the Las Vegas Golden Knights, pulled in 121,076 total viewers and 53,050 within the 18-to-49 realm.

Blues-Bruins were outdrawn in total viewers by ABC’s wall-to-wall game shows, CBS’ 7 to 9 p.m. sitcom repeats and Fox4’s 9 p.m. local newscast.

On Wednesday night, the Toronto Raptors’ Game 3 win over the defending champion Golden State Warriors on ABC averaged 393,641 total viewers and 217,382 within the 18-to-49 motherlode. Those numbers were down from last year’s Game 3 between the Warriors and Cleveland Cavaliers, which drew 427,326 total viewers and 224,683 in the 18-to-49 age range.

But Game 3 of Raptors-Warriors drew its highest percentage to date of 18-to-49ers. And it also soundly thrashed all competing prime-time programming in both ratings measurements.

Tuesday -- Fox4 swept the 10 p.m. and 6 p.m. competitions in both total viewers and with 25-to-54-year-olds (main advertiser target audience for news programming).

The station also won at 5 and 6 p.m. with 25-to-54-year-olds. WFAA8 drew the most total viewers at 6 p.m. while Fox4 and NBC5 shared the lead in that measurement at 5 p.m.

Wednesday -- Fox4 and NBC5 shared the 10 p.m. lead with total viewers, but Fox4 won outright among 25-to-54-year-olds in a downsized three-way race. WFAA8’s latenighter was delayed by Raptors-Warriors.

Fox4 ran the table at both 6 a.m. and 5 p.m. while the Peacock did likewise at 6 p.m.